Minnesota State-related Newspaper Articles

CROPS IN MINNESOTA
During the late political assemblages in St. Paul, we had many opportunities of learning the prospects of the crops in different localities of Minnesota.
The farmers from the southern counties are in the midst of their harvest. Their wheat, they say, will average almost a full crop, notwithstanding the drought in the early part of the season. A full crop of wheat in Minnesota, is from thirty to forty bushels per acre.
From the Minnesota valley we hear the same account of the wheat crop; and in this vicinity, in the counties of Ramsey, Dakota and Washington, nothing materially less detrimental to the prospect of a full harvest can be presumed, from accounts before us.
Oats, corn, potatoes, &c., look fine and promise well in all parts of the Territory. - From present prospects, Minnesota will be able to join in the general time of thanks and rejoicing which will go up this year from all parts of the great valley of the West, upon the gathering of the fruits of the earth. -[Daily Minnesotian, July 30, The Quincy Daily Whig, Wednesday, August 15, 1855 - transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

The River – The Minnesota bids fair at this time to come up to the mark of 1851 at least, and perhaps to that of 1850. Fullerton's bridge, from Boat Island to the opposite shore, has at last given away under the pressure of the flood. The west wing of the St. Anthony dam has also been swept off. - [Minnesota Democrat, The Quincy Whig, Saturday, May 17, 1856 - Contributed by Debbie Gibson]

MORE COLONIES COME - On the Editor, which arrived yesterday morning, were two colonies, one bound for Crow River, and the other Rum River. They brought with them their cattle and horses, and all the paraphernalia of farmers. These companies, consisting of about fifty persons, immediately repaired to the Drug Store of J. Wesley Bond, Esp., he being, in their opinion, the proper person from whom to obtain information in regard to Minnesota. One of the colonies was from Pennsylvania and the other from Ohio. [Minnesota Democrat, The Quincy Whig, Saturday, May 17, 1856 - Contributed by Debbie Gibson]

LAND SURVEYS OF MINNESOTA
The Committee of Public Lands of the House of Representatives has under consideration the subject of creating a new survey district especially for Minnesota, and detatching (detaching) it from the States of Iowa and Wisconsin; such a course being necessary for the extension of the public surveys and to meet the demands of settlers, and the advance of the present and prospective fields of observation.
Owing to the vast amount of public domain in that section of the counties, the Land Office deputies have frequently traveled from 300 to 700 miles to prosecute their business. There are in Minnesota 91,000,000 of acres of public lands, enough to make three States the size of Iowa. [The Quincy Whig, Saturday, January 24, 1857 - Transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

Referred to the Committee on finance
Mr. Rice introduced a bill calling public attention to the State of Minnesota to aid in improving the navigation of the Minnesota and the Red River of the North and connecting the same by a canal.
Mr. Wilkinson introduced a bill for the relief of persons for damages sustained by the recent depredations of certain bands of Sioux Indians. Referred.
He also introduced two bills for the removal of Winnebago and Sioux Indians from Minnesota, and the sale of their reservations.
Senator rice's bill in aid of a canal to connect the Missouri and Red river of the North, grants for such purpose a million acres of Minnesota lands, besides the right of way of 2,000 feet in width. [The Quincy Whig Republican, Saturday, December 13, 1862 - Transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

MINNESOTA CORRESPONDENCE
The Tourist season – Immigration – Plentiful Harvest – Politics – Quincy Personals
[Special Correspondence of the Quincy Whig]
St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 22, '68.
From our sunny Northern homes we now again greet the friends of the older days with tidings of good cheer. The summer “season” is about over. The tourists who have made the country lively and merry. With their presence during the last two months, who have hunted and fished, and rode, and rowed and sailed, are now packing up their tackle with their wardrobes, and leaving us. They are leaving just at the commencement of the most enjoyable season, for while July is usually about as hot here as five degrees southward, August, September and October are more pleasant. The invalids who came here during the summer have, some of them, gone home greatly benefited; others by reasons of the advanced stages of their disease, or the shortness of their stay, little improved. Many, and by far the wiser class have remained, and will remain until a cure is perfected, if it requires the whole of their natural lives. The immigrants who swarmed into every quarter of our State, from all parts of our country, and by tens of thousands from Northern Europe, have, in most cases, gone out to the cast prairies, and are opening up homesteads, under the new beneficent act of Congress, and will be heard from in a year or two in the export returns, and in the increased demand of necessaries of life and implements of agriculture.
CROPS
There are the salient features of the summer's events. The harvest is past, and seldom, if ever, within the recollection of the citizens of Minnesota has so large or so good a crop of wheat been garnered. I hear of some yields as large as thirty-seven bushels per acre, and no less than twenty. Having traveled extensively in almost every settled section of the State, and seen the immense breadth of ground devoted to the raising of this cereal, I am in some measure prepared to estimate the aggregate products, and can certify that it will be enormous, beyond all precedent in our history. Other grains are generally productive. Oats are very fine, and corn, which for two years past has been “cooked” bu an early September frost, being this year planted a month earlier than usual, and the number of acres more than double, is now nearly or quite out of the way of frost, and in size and prospective yield, equal to anything I ever saw in Illinois.
BUSINESS
This magnificent crop prospect, is of course, very encouraging to all kinds of business. Prices promise to be good, and the frontier farmer is in need of too many of the comforts of life to long hoard his gains after they have been secured. So our merchants are bringing in heavy stocks of goods, money is beginning to circulate more freely, and the whole atmosphere is full of the electric thrill of hope.
POLITICS
We are now in the midst of the seething ante-nomination political excitement of this year. We elect no State officers this year, but our two members of Congress are to be elected. In the First District, Hon. M. S. Wilkinson, from 1860 to 1866 U. S. senator from this State, and a good, true and able man, has been nominated, and will be elected by an overwhelming majority. In this District, the Convention was postponed to suit the convenience of the sitting member, Donnelly, who last spring achieved a national notoriety by his “spirited” reply to Elihu Washburne's unwarrented charges. Donnelly wanted time to stump the District in his own interest so the Committee who were his friends, set the Convention for September 3d, and withheld the call until Congress adjourned and their chief could return. He is now upon the war path, the primary meetings are being held and the result is yet doubtful. His principal (principle) competitor is Wm. S Washburn, of Minneapolis, a brother of the Congressional family, and an able and accomplished gentleman – a classmate in college, by the way, of C. Greeley, Esq., of your city. On national questions and issues, Minnesota is all right, and may be counted on for a thundering majority for Grant, Colfax and Peace.
PERSONAL
Many Quincy people have visited Minnesota this season, the principal being, since my last letter, so far as I can remember, Mr. And Mrs. D. T. Jamison, Mr. J. T. Morgan, Miss Anna VamDoorn, Mr.. And Mrs. Wm. Morris, Mrs. And Miss Baughman, Mrs. C. E. Doyen, A. Comstock, S. J. Castle, Mrs. T. H. Castle, Mr. J. B. Roberts, Jno. A. White, Capt. J. M. Pitman, H. W. Mead, Jno. Taylor, H. S. Osborn and family, Mr. And Mrs. T. M. Rogers, Mr. And Mrs. W. T. Rogers, Mr. And Mrs. C. H. Bull, Miss Bull, Mr. And Mrs. Baker, and Col. Wm. Hanna. Some still remain here, and all seemed to enjoy their visit. But for the temporary impediment to navigation at the Upper Rapids, we presume many more would yet come, as the trip is the cheapest and most delightful that could be found, and the coming months, where the shores will be decked in all gorgeous variety of autumn foliage, are the very best in which to make it.
H. A. C. [The Quincy Whig Republican, Saturday, August 29, 1868 - Transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

Old Settlers Meeting
A Large Attendance and an Interesting Program
The annual meeting of the Old Settlers' association of the Red River Valley convened at Fargo Friday morning, James Nolan, of Abercrombie, presiding.

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:
President:
N. K. Hubbard, Fargo
Vice Presidents:
E. M. Probstfield, Clay County, Minnesota
Charles Cavalier, Pembina; W. C. Nash. Polk County, Minnesota
George B. Winship, Grand Forks
Charles W. Morgan, Traill County
James Holes, Cass County
Frank Herrick, Richland County
Ed. Connelly, Wilkin County, Minnesota
Jacob Rheinhardt, Walsh County
Secretary:
B. F. Mackall, Moorhead
Treasurer:
W. H. White, Fargo

A committee to be known as the historical committee of the Old Settlers' association of the Bed River Valley was appointed to gather reminiscences, incidents of early history, biographical sketches and photographs of the old settlers, etc.
The committee consists of the following members:
Col. C. A. Lounsberry, Fargo Argus
George B. Winship, Grand Forks Herald
R. M. Probstfleld
S. G. Roberts
E. S Tyler, Fargo
David McCaulay, McCauleyville, Minnesota
Charles Cavalier, of Pembina

The meeting, which was a very enjoyable gathering throughout, concluded with a banquet at the Hotel Metropole in the evening, which included a fine program.
Among the toasts and responses were the following:
"Attorney's Life and Railroading in "71 and 72"-Hon. S. G. Comstock
"Running a Stage Station"-George B. Winship
"Fargo in the Timber, by Its First Postmaster"-G. J. Keeney
"Early Recollections"-R. M. Probstfield
What I Know About Hotel Keeping"-James Nolan.
"The Red River Valley"-W. J. Anderson
'Early Merchandising"-J. H. Sharp
'Fargo, My Early Love and Present Home"-W. H. White

Among those in attendance were the following:
James Nolan, 1865, Abercrombie
Jacob Reinhardt, 1866, McCauleyville
Frank Veits, 1870. Georgetown
James A. Jenks, 1871, Grand Forks
R. M. Probstfield, 1859, Moorhead
E. R. Hutchinson, 1858, Georgetown
Jacob Lowell, Jr., 1870, Fargo
P. P. Nokken, 1871, Fargo
P. Kelly, 1871, Goose River
William H. Brown, 1875, Grand Forks
James Elton, 1872, Georgetown
W. J. Anderson, 1875, Grand Forks
Frank Herrick, 1870, Abercrombie
Job Herrick, 1870, Abercrombie
James Holes, 1871, Fargo
Harry O'Nell, 1873, Fargo
J. C. Probert, 1872, Fargo
Andrew McHedch, 1870, Fargo
John H. Sharp, 1871, Moorhead
F.J. Smith, honorary, 1882, Fargo
W. H. White, 1871, Fargo
George I. Foster, 1871, Pembina
Geo. B. Winship, 1867, Turtle River
D. M. Holmes, 1871, Grand Forks
N. B. Pinkham, 1871, Fargo
A. H Morgan, 1871, Frog Point
John E. Haggart, 1871, Fargo
S. G. Roberts, 1872. Fargo
G. S. Barnes, 1872, Glyndon
H.G. Stordock, 1873, Breckenridge
Charles B. Thimens, 1872, Fargo
Clement A. Lounsberry, 1873, Bismarck, Fargo
Arthur Bassett, 1872, Glyndon
Frank Whitman, 1871, Fargo
S. E. Herrick. born Abercrombie, 1873
Evan S. Tyler, 1873, Fargo
Alex Gamble, 1872, Fargo
Joseph Prevost, Wolverton
S. F. Crockett, 1879, Fargo
Edwin Griffin, 1853, seven miles south of Fargo

In addition to those named above were many old settlers. Among them:
J. B. Blanchard
B. F. Mackall
A. F. Pinkham
G. J. Keeney
N. L. Shattuck
A. A. White
Ed Porrit
F. J. Burnham.

There are 269 old settlers on the roll, but when their names were called a second time the following were stricken off, death having claimed them:
Capt. Reeves
J. S. Eshelman
William Blair
David Blair
Al Wright
O. S. Freeman
Hugh O'Donnell
Charles A. Brown
Ed O'Brien
J. W. Taylor
John Kabernagle
J. R. Harris

The society having organized in 1880, these deaths were scattered through these several years.
[ Grand Forks Herald - December 8, 1894 - Contributed by Frances Cooley]